


Gold in Darkness

by ambiguously



Category: Original Work
Genre: Demon Hunters, M/M, Magic, Sibling Incest, Worldbuilding
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-04
Updated: 2017-06-04
Packaged: 2018-10-31 21:08:06
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,453
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10907490
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ambiguously/pseuds/ambiguously
Summary: Zehav's brother Hakem is ill, and Zehav must care for him or he'll die. The only problem is that when Hakem wakes up, he's going to try to kill him again.





	Gold in Darkness

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Piinutbutter](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Piinutbutter/gifts).



Zehav checked the fire again. It was something to do. Years ago, he'd learned to build many different kinds of fires, from the glorious bonfires that lit his campsites like day, to the mean, hot cooking fires that roasted his day's catch. Tonight's fire gave heat from dim, red coals while yielding too little light to give away their location.

Close by the fire, Hakem muttered and rolled over in his fever sleep.

Beyond the fire, woodland creatures made their night noises. Insects burred and creaked and flashed between the thick trunks of the trees, seeking mates. Small animals rustled among the mulched leaves and thick brambles of the forest floor, darting out for meals in the darkness, or searching for their own companionship. These woods were home to larger predators, fierce wild cats and the solitary Ur Bears who only hunted by day. Zehav kept his chargespear close. He should hear anything approaching well before whatever it was reached their puny camp, but he would be ready. He and Hakem both smelled of blood from their injuries, and a hungry enough hunter wouldn't care if the blood didn't smell human.

Hakem moaned again. Zehav came closer, placing a worried hand against the burning hot skin of his cheek. Zehav's leg would heal. The fever eating Hakem was far more dangerous.

He had some woodcraft. He had to, living rough these past few years, but his medicinal knowledge was limited to what would clot a wound. Willow bark was good for fevers, wasn't it? Did it matter, with no willow trees within a hundred miles? No human doctor would treat either of them.

The fire was dying. As the chills wracked his brother, all he knew for certain was that he had to keep Hakem warm. Zehav placed his palms together, creating a ball of golden flame between them, then threw it into the fire pit to relight the coals. He turned back to Hakem, whose eyes had opened with a glassy stare.

"Good morning," Zehav said, although it was gone midnight.

Hakem's face twisted, and he cringed up to a sitting position. "You." The fear and venom encompassed in the word cut Zehav to the bone. Hundreds of petty fights from their childhood came bursting back, opening wounds as deep as the one aching his leg now.

He felt his fists clench, and heard the cold in his own voice as he replied, "You were expecting Aunt Safira?"

"Why? Did you kill her, too?" Hakem's gaze was muddled but his tongue was as sharp as ever.

Anger flowed through his veins as easily as blood. Just like Father. Zehav felt the flicker of flames inside his gut want to burst out. But life was about making choices. He chose to push the fire away. "I did not. I never killed anyone who wasn't trying to kill me first. You don't have to believe me, but it's the truth."

"I know what truth is from you."

That stung as well. He'd known his own nature from early on. Zehav had few memories of the hell dimension where he'd been born, and none of the mother who'd birthed him. Father insisted she'd intended to eat her weaker pup. He'd abducted his son and fled to the human world to save him, leaving behind a stronger sister for their mother to raise. Their father had worn a human face over his naturally golden hide when he'd fallen in love with Hakem's mother, and he'd compelled his elder son to maintain the lie. The rages of adolescence had brought their usual fights, and the unusual problem of a boy who'd lit the house on fire in the midst of his first violent sexual dream. Suspicions grew around them, and the cruel teasing of older, bigger boys who mistook the chosen shade of their skin as reason to taunt and punch, and eventually to provoke an attack when Hakem's own powers had shown themselves.

Hakem had chosen safety, allying himself with those who hunted the demons that crossed the borders between worlds, hiding his own ancestry and telling those who knew the truth that he hated the demon who'd seduced his mother.

That was a different kind of lie, one that Hakem chose to believe. Zehav didn't believe it. The human woman he'd grown up calling his mother had loved their father, and she'd wept hot tears when Father had been killed by a demon hunter seeking a bounty. Hakem had not been involved, Zehav was certain to his bones. The same could not be said for his pursuit of Zehav these past few months, ever since he'd picked up his brother's trail. Maybe he wouldn't kill Zehav but Zehav had no doubt Hakem would try.

All this passed in a flash of thought as Zehav watched his brother. He turned, placing his back to him, as he fetched his canteen. "Here," he said, shoving it at Hakem. "Drink. You're dehydrated from the fever."

Hakem didn't take the water bottle. "Poison?"

"I'm no poisoner. If I wanted you dead, I could have slit your throat any time over the last six hours." But to prove the point, Zehav took a drink himself. "Go on." Hakem still wouldn't take it until Zehav set it between them. Then with greedy hands, Hakem grabbed the canteen and sucked down as much water as he could. "Careful or you'll puke it up."

Hakem lowered the bottle with a glare. He'd always hated when Zehav was right. "So am I your prisoner, or what?"

There was no good answer. His brother's skin still glowed with an unhealthy shine. Zehav couldn't leave him alone or he'd die before reaching the closest town. If he let him know there was a radio, and he called his friends to fetch him, Zehav would be killed. He only looked human to those who didn't know what he was. To trained demon hunters, he was a kid in a plastic mask trying to pass as something other than a monster.

Following the line of his thoughts, Hakem said, "My group won't kill you if I tell them you've got intel."

"Oh great. I can look forward to being tortured for information I don't have."

"We're looking for the soft places. You can tell them about the ones you know."

Zehav shook his head. The soft places where the worlds touched were easy to see for a demon, and impossible for a human. Hakem had the sight, making him valuable to the cause. They didn't dare invade the hell dimensions but they were happy to set vicious traps on this side, snaring demons whose only crime was wanting to escape the fiery hellscapes of their homelands. Zehav's jaw twitched. All right, there were also demons who thought creeping over to the human world and fucking around with the mortals was a fun time, and yes, while Hakem and most other half-demons had been born from love, others had had far more brutal origins.

Demons weren't nice by nature. They were people, just like humans. Some were okay, and some were good, and some were assholes. The actions of the assholes had made life hard for the rest. Father had been a good man, and he'd been killed for what he was, not anything he'd done.

"I'm not helping your dickbag friends trap other demons."

"Then you need to think about going through the next soft place you pass. I found you. They're going to find you, and they'll kill you."

Zehav placed his hand on his chargespear. "They can try. You only found me because I let you."

"I've been tracking you."

"I know. I could have fled." To where, he wasn't sure. Deeper into the wilderness, across another border to a different country, even back through a soft place although he'd be lost in the demon world. He'd been raised human, and it was possible his mother and sister still intended to put him on the dinner menu.

"Then why didn't you?"

Because I felt the disease growing inside you, he didn't say. He'd always had a connection to Hakem, from their earliest childhood, knowing when the baby was about to cry, feeling when Hakem crashed his bike a mile away, tasting Hakem's first kiss with the boyfriend their parents never knew about. Hakem had contracted a bad infection from his long nights out on the hunt, and it ate him from inside. Zehav couldn't leave him.

He didn't know much medicine. He did know how to heal. The fire churned from the dim coals straight into his soul. He slid closer to his brother. "You needed me."

Hakem reared back. "I did not."

Zehav pushed closer, and captured his brother's face in his hands. Fire in Hakem's skin, and fire in Zehav's belly. He pressed his lips against his brother's head, sending the power he had flowing through both as Hakem gasped and jerked.

He'd tried this before, as his brother had slept, but the power needed a positive and negative. Hakem had to be awake to receive the discharge. Now the energy built between them, light flickering from Zehav's veins into his brother's, seeking out the bacteria that had colonized his blood and searing them with holy fire.

The thing about demons was that they weren't much different from angels, except in a few particulars.

Hakem blinked his eyes, the muzziness fading as his body cooled in the night air. Zehav let go of him, energy still irradiating his whole body. He was uncomfortably aware of everything around him, from the smell of Hakem's skin to the thick, painful erection in his own pants, and the seductive night breeze, and the hum of a thousand insects fucking around them.

"What the hell did you do?"

"Healed you. You're welcome."

Hakem pushed him away, stretching his own arms and legs before catching sight of Zehav's own feverish face and his poorly-disguised arousal. "How? Did you always know how to do that? Can all demons heal?" He got to his feet, eyes drawn back to Zehav. "What other magic can you do?"

"It's not magic. I don't think I can heal anyone else. You're different." His clothes rubbed his body wrong. He wanted to pull them off, pull away this human skin, and go bathing in moonlight. His powers didn't come on this strongly most of the time. They usually left him vaguely angry and ashamed, not horny and alive.

Hakem knelt beside him. For a moment, his face was young and open, and he was just Zehav's little brother. "Are you going to be okay?" He set his hand against Zehav's arm, and it burned in the best way.

Zehav turned away from him. "If you're feeling better, you have to go. The closest town is ten miles to the east. You should make it in a few hours."

"Zehav."

He pulled up a growl. "Begone, demon hunter."

Hakem's face found his face, and Zehav resisted the tug, not wanting his brother to see the expression in his eyes. "You saved my life and something is wrong with you. Mom would kill me if I left you now."

"She's not my mother."

"Tell her that." Gone was all his anger, even his self-hate. Zehav had tried to burn away the infection, and had seared away more in his attempt. This was Hakem, the boy he'd known almost all his life, and the man he'd risked everything to save, and his eyes were clear and full of love. "How bad is it, Z?"

"Bad. It'll pass."

"Did you do some weird demon shit where you sucked away the infection?" At the word 'suck,' Zehav gave an involuntary groan. Hakem pulled back, and Zehav felt sick. He couldn't help but know now.

Hakem kissed him. It wasn't a good kiss, but Hakem had been ill and Zehav was too startled to reciprocate. He felt the swipe of Hakem's tongue against his lips, and moaned again. Hakem rested his head against Zehav's.

"You took care of me. I can take care of you."

You kill people like me, Zehav thought. You wanted to kill me. I'm not sure you're really you right now instead of delirious from your fever and a little too much demon magic. He said none of these things, only nodded mutely as Hakem's hand patted his stomach before unzipping his pants with easy practice. Zehav had tasted other kisses, experienced other nights between his brother and the lovers he'd taken. Zehav had never made room in his life for a lover, too frightened of his own nature. Hakem's hand touched him now, stroking him, and it was the first time anyone else ever had.

Zehav breathed in sharp, heavy gasps, bones slack and cock hard as a rod in his little brother's knowledgeable hand. They both knew the rumors about demon cocks: how engorged they grew with lust, how they spat red flames when they came, how they ruined the humans they fucked. His first orgasm had ripped through him with fire, but that had sprung from his own hands, torching his bed and almost killing them all. His skin was just as sensitive as a human man's there, shivering in the rough, hot slide of Hakem's hand as he pumped him, wordless around his tongue as his brother kissed him harder.

"Please," he said, breaking the kiss. "Please."

"Tell me," said Hakem, stilling his hand like the insouciant little bastard he'd always been. Zehav was so close, leaking rivulets onto his brother's patient grip.

"I love you," Zehav said, because it was the only truth he knew, and Hakem jerked him hard until Zehav was shuddering and coming, howling into the dark night as the moon watched them in his cold judgement.

"Show me your real face," Hakem said, and Zehav, nearly insensate, dropped the human mask he wore, golden and gleaming with sweat, his pants covered with his own semen as Hakem wiped his hand against Zehav's shirt. Zehav waited for the horror to creep in, but Hakem's face only curled into a smile as he pressed a kiss against one gleaming horn. "I love you, too."

His mouth found Zehav's again, and they joined each other on the bedroll, the one Zehav had rested him on close by the fire. Hakem's skin did not change as they touched each other, keeping the same warm brown Zehav had grown up loving. His eyes went gold as Zehav reached inside his pants, and Zehav watched the expression on his brother's face as he took his cock deep into his mouth and began to suck.

He prayed the Ur Bears left them alone all night.


End file.
